More than a Mend

Judy and I both got excited when we looked at a vintage coat at a sale last Friday. “Look,” she said, “I wonder if someone replaced this lining.”

The coat was a rosy brown wool crepe, very heavy, with raglan sleeves and a pleat in back to give it swing.

The lining did indeed have an indefinable homemade quality to it, though very nicely done, with piping all around. Possibly it was the fabric, a print instead of the usual color-toned heavy satin. I figured this coat must have been such a favorite that the original lining needed replacing.

Since my word for this year is “Mend” I just had to look at the price tag. Four dollars! So I  just had to try it on – and it fit. I have more than one winter coat, but there’s room in my hall closet for another. 

Home with me it came.

When I got home I noticed that the lining was unattached to the coat itself at the hem of the pleat in back. The inside of a garment tells its story, so I peeled back the lining to look at the seams. And quickly realized they were homemade. A commercially made coat as nice as this would most likely have seams with the edges finished in some way. I don’t know, it's hard to describe, but you know it when you see it, and when you don’t.

I kept pulling more of the coat to the wrong side, confirming my guess. I worked my way up to the shoulder pads, which look like something I could have constructed myself. Some woman made this coat; it did not come from a factory. It would have been a huge project and taken enormous skill. She made bound buttonholes (something I've never mastered, or even wanted to - you have to SLASH the fabric before you insert the binding!). 

The buttons are secured on the back with small anchor buttons. The back pleat hangs perfectly. 

Thread belt loops, diagonal pocket flaps.

The top-stitching…I looked more closely. The top-stitching was all done by HAND. Through heavy wool.

Just an old coat, hanging in the hall closet at an otherwise uninteresting estate sale. Unregarded by the dozens of people foraging through the house. Mute testimony to the endeavors of an anonymous, creative woman. She went to a fabric store, and found a pattern she loved, then shopped for just the right fabric. It was more expensive than she’d counted on, so she chose a less expensive lining fabric. Then days or weeks completing all the steps of makery – cutting, pinning, basting, trying on. Adjusting, getting everything just right before sitting down at her old Singer and stitching the seams. Assembling the many pieces: the two sides of the back, inserting the pleat, then the two fronts, with facings and those buttonholes. Each sleeve to be eased into the armhole, buttoned tabs with hand top-stitching to insert into the seams.

 And then repeat it all for the lining, and insert that, outlined with white piping.

I wonder where she wore it, the first time? I hope someone noticed her new coat, and complimented her on it.

I know I probably won't wear this coat often, but I will wear it with admiration. Four dollars for artistry; the least I can do is notice and honor the artist. But I do have one regret.

There was another coat in that closet, also marked $4. And I barely glanced at it.

I wonder if she made that one too?